A ridiculous situation! Grayzer is correct the only way is to get to Newry. I'd to get to Portadown (and on to Craigavon) for 8am and was really surprised that there was no public transport that would get me in on time. I was lucky enough to find someone who worked in Belfast that was happy to car share, but had to go on to Belfast and then get a train back to Portadown, an understanding employer helped too if delayed.

holidaysong wrote:I just took it as a foregone conclusion this route would exist thanks for the responses though guys. Car to Newry and on from there the only option is a bit mad.

It's mad for sure. It's not that long ago that there were the 2 options, Goldlink/Bus Eireann and the Aircoach service as well. It's as recent as our debut in Setanta cup that the service was available several times a day.

I'm surprised that the shop owners. chamber of commerce & tourism people in the town and area haven't been campaigning for the reinstatement of the route, Belfast has half a million potential customers only an hour away from their shops. It seems incredibly short sighted.

Getting home via public transport is no hassle, it is getting North that is the grief. Is there no students that commute to Belfast that need to be in before 9am, never mind people who work in Belfast?

No of any use to you right now HS but I remember reading an interview sometime last year where the new bossman at Irish Rail, who had just come in from a lifetime in rail services in the UK and Europe and he couldn't believe there wasn't an hourly service to the likes of Cork and Belfast and services that arrived in time for 9am etc.

In light of that one of the first improvements he wants to push ahead are a revamp of the timetable to Belfast and I think he mentioned getting something like every 2 hours up and running and in a format like 15 mins past the hour every 2 hours not times all over the place.

Of course this new timetable rollout will be as fast and as punctual as an Irish Rail service :-)